Is a law license required to be in a person's legal name?

Factual Questions
21

In common law states, your legal name is what you say it is, unless you are using it for fraudulent purposes. Even my passport is not under the name on my birth certificate. In Quebec, government forms all insist on asking your name “a la naissance”, meaning at birth, even if, as in my case, that is not a name that appears on any document other than my birth certificate. I ignore the instructions, of course. But Quebec has the attitude that you do have a legal name and cannot change it under any circumstances.

On the other hand, when my brother joined the Air Force, they looked up and found his birth certificate and insisted that he use the name they found there. For an opposite data point, when I registered for the draft, the woman who registered me under my common name with no middle name, said I would have to choose a middle name when I was drafted (never happened) because my name was too common and it would cause too much confusion. These stories contradict each other of course.

22

The Florida Bar requires applicants to disclose any names they have used in the past, whether they are “legal” names or not (for background check purposes), but admits practitioners under their legal name only. However, once admitted, a practitioner may use almost any name so long as he/she sticks to it and reports it to the bar.

[QUOTE=Florida Bar Ethics Opinion 74-20]
The same attorney advises that his legal name is Raymond Richard Rogers (a pseudonym we choose not for its alliterative qualities but because there is no one so listed in the September 1973 Florida Bar Journal). As he grew up, certain family nicknames were used and charitably discarded. The attorney does not like the name Raymond, he does not mind Richard, he prefers Dick.

He has used the name Dick in all legal matters for some time and states that as far as he knows no one has been misled or mistaken as to his identity. He is so listed in The Florida Bar Journal and in the current telephone directory. He asks if he may properly use Dick on his firm letterhead as well as signing correspondence with that name.

We are of the opinion that there is no impropriety in using Dick under the circumstances outlined. We do not think an attorney should practice under two distinctly separate names or even two names which are not for all practical purposes identical. Ordinarily,1 he should use the name under which he was admitted to the bar.

We do not believe that a William signing a letter Bill, a Henry signing a letter Hank, or a Francis signing as Frank is going to mislead anyone, particularly where his full name is set out on his letterhead, although we know of no rule absolutely requiring this.2

But an attorney admitted to practice as Horatio3 Jones might well create confusion by hanging out his shingle as Buddy Jones. If he does not like Horatio and prefers Buddy,4 we believe he can be Buddy but that he should advise The Florida Bar of the name he is using and should see that henceforth he is so listed in legal and telephone directories, on occupational licenses, letterheads, professional cards and shingles.

Just as there are legitimate reasons to use a different name — to avoid confusion, for example—5 there may be instances where an attorney uses another name in order to confuse or to conceal his real identity. Nothing we have stated in response to the question put to us should be construed as approving such a practice.
[/QUOTE]

There is a gentleman who practices in the same field as me whose pleadings are all signed as (the equivalent of) “X. Y. Smith III.” I’ve never seen his first name printed anywhere - even on his own firm’s website - and he goes by a diminutive form of his (kind of hoity-toity) middle name. This makes it a pain in the arse to find his bar profile when I need his fax number and can’t find him in our records, but it’s acceptable.

While this is certainly subject to state variance it’s unlikely to be much different elsewhere.

23

This is the main point - use whatever name(s) you want; but in the event of a legal dispute, ensuring that the name referenced is meant to refer to you probably removes one hurdle in the dispute; as does a consistent and regular signature. My signature is initial-surname, written quickly, sometimes it’s hard to say if that’s an “e” or “L”, hard to tell if there’s an “S” at the end or not, etc. - but essentially, it looks the same as when I signed my Social Insurance Number card over 40 years ago. Ihave only one signature, and only one form of “initialing”. If you make up a new name each week, proving for example that the contract you signed was actually you becomes a bit more complex. However, people can and do change their names from time to time for various non-nefarious reasons.

24

What about:

FI MI(s) Lastname?